Network Simulation

Advantages of Network Simulation

Performing network simulation has several advantages before deploying physical hardware:

• Cost-effectiveness: Eliminates the need for expensive hardware and large-scale physical setups.
• Safe testing environment: Enables testing of high-load scenarios, failures, and security threats without real-world risks.
• Rapid experimentation: Allows quick changes to parameters such as protocols, mobility, and traffic models.
• Scalability: Supports thousands of nodes and complex topologies that are impractical to deploy physically.
• Performance evaluation: Measures throughput, latency, jitter, packet loss, and other key metrics under various conditions.
• Realistic modeling: Includes wireless channel effects and interference based on 3GPP specifications for accurate analysis.
• Reduced time to market: Helps optimize network design and protocols early in development.

Components of Network Simulation

The building blocks in your network simulation can include:

• Nodes: Mobile phones, base stations, access points, and edge devices (e.g., IoT sensors, Bluetooth speakers)
• Communication links: Transmitters, receivers, and RF/antenna configurations
• Protocols: 5G, WLAN, Bluetooth, and custom ad hoc networking
• Protocol layers: Physical layer, data link layer, and TCP/IP stack
• Traffic models: Voice, video, and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) traffic to evaluate network behavior under varying loads
• Mobility models: Mobile devices, satellites, aircraft, cars, ships, and pedestrians
• Channel conditions: Fading, path loss, shadowing, and interference effects to evaluate connectivity and quality of service (QoS)

Network Simulation Workflow

Steps in the network simulation include:

• Initialize: Launch the simulation engine, visualizers, and loggers. The engine acts as a discrete-event simulator for wireless networks, while visualizers display real-time activity and loggers capture performance data.
• Configure nodes and layers: Define network elements (e.g., base stations, access points, mobile devices, sensors) and set parameters for protocol layers, such as physical (PHY), data link (DLL), and higher layers.
• Add real-world factors: Introduce channel models, traffic patterns, and device mobility to reflect realistic operating conditions. 
• Run and visualize: Execute the simulation, generate and transmit packets, apply channel effects, and monitor performance indicators such as latency, throughput, and channel quality in real time.
• Analyze results: Evaluate network performance by reviewing logged statistics, packet traces, and signal samples.

How to Perform Network Simulation with MATLAB

MATLAB^® supports end-to-end communication system design across multiple layers—including physical, data link, and application—while providing capabilities for higher-layer protocol development and analysis:

• Discrete-event simulation: Enables packet-level and event-driven modeling of scheduling, queuing, retransmissions, and resource allocation.
• Flexibility: Allows customization of network components and higher layers of communication node to represent standard wireless communication protocols (e.g., 3GPP, IEEE 802.11) or novel research designs.
• Cross-layer integration: Combines higher-layer models with detailed PHY simulations for comprehensive performance analysis.
• Performance metrics and KPIs: Provides built-in tools to evaluate latency, throughput, packet loss, QoS, and other key metrics across layers.
• Rapid prototyping: High-level programming, debugging, and visualization capabilities accelerate testing of new algorithms and system designs.

Using MATLAB, Communications Toolbox™, and other wireless communications tools based in MATLAB, you can perform the modeling and simulation of 5G, WLAN, Bluetooth, and other wireless networks. It enables users to model and simulate the coexistence of heterogeneous networks, such as WLAN and Bluetooth. You can create essential building blocks for wireless network modeling, such as communication nodes, node placement, wireless channels, node mobility, user data traffic, and logs. You can assess key performance metrics for wireless networks by creating visualizations of data rate, latency, throughput, packet loss, quality of service, and other KPIs. It also evaluates network parameters, such as node density and placement, providing a comprehensive view of network performance.

5G Network Simulation

For 5G networks, you can use MATLAB to: 

• Simulate 3GPP reference scenarios, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) indoor hotspot (InH) scenarios defined in 3GPP TR 38.913.
• Model and simulate 5G interference with up to a 19-site cluster using toroidal wrap-around, as described in ITU-R M.2101-0.
• Analyze 5G cell performance with advanced features such as downlink MU-MIMO.

WLAN Network Simulation

For WLAN networks, you can use MATLAB to:

• Model and simulate Wi-Fi 7 networks with advanced features such as multilink operation (MLO).
• Perform multinode system-level simulations for residential scenarios.
• Explore OFDMA-based system-level simulations for WLAN performance evaluation.

Bluetooth Network Simulation

For Bluetooth networks, you can use MATLAB to:

• Model and simulate complete Bluetooth networks, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and BR/EDR technologies.
• Simulate and analyze multistream LE audio scenarios, such as Auracast™ for broadcast audio applications.
• Model and evaluate Bluetooth mesh networks, focusing on performance, scalability, and reliability in large-scale IoT deployments.